The Bacon Beatdown

Warning: photo-heavy post below

I shared with you in a previous post my & Jamie's trip to Daytona Beach, Florida. While we enjoyed fun, relaxation, and daquiris & piña coladas in the evenings, it wasn't the original purpose of the trip.

I mentioned that we ran into this lovely couple while we were there--our son, Joey, and his wife, Kim--but it wasn't by accident. Joey had invited us down to watch him compete in a two-day CrossFit competition, The Bacon Beatdown. Both he and Kim have done CrossFit for a few years and have participated in several competitions, but we've never seen one in person. So off to Daytona Beach we went!

The competition was open to both individuals and teams, men & women. I took my camera, but I wasn't there as a photographer for the event. I was there as Joey's mom, and so the majority of my photos are of Joey.

This is Team Run Like The Winded: Mark, Joey, and Brad. They all work out at CrossFit Encompass in Macon, Georgia, and I believe the gym is owned by Brad and his wife. (Joey will correct me on any mis-information, and I'll correct anything I get wrong.) They competed in six events over two days.

Each event had a name. The first event was was called Full Tilt, and Joey's role in that one was to handstand walk 36 feet. At the end of 36 feet, his teammates had to do 12 worm squats. (What's a worm squat? The photos will show you.) When they completed those 12, Joey had to turn around and handstand walk 36 feet, at which point his teammates had to do another 12 worm squats. That is a round. They had to do three rounds. Oh, and they had six minutes to complete all three rounds.

Worm squats! The worm weighs between 175 and 225 pounds. Ouch!

The second event was called Hold 'Em and consisted of overhead squats. Joey has a bit of a bum shoulder and warned us this wouldn't be a good event for him. He still lifted plenty enough to impress us.

The next event (and we're still on Day 1) was called Slow Burn. It consisted of Deadlifts, 400m Run, & Pull Ups (bar and rings). There was an 11 minute time limit, and the teammates could switch in & out.

This is a manual treadmill, powered solely by the runner. (Fun side note: Joey was a runner in high school. In fact, he & Kim met when both were on the cross country team in school.)

After all that, back to the Deadlifts...

Whew!!! So ended Day 1.....I was exhausted just watching.

Day 2 started bright and early on the beach with an even called Maelstrom. This is the description of the event from the Bacon Beatdown website: "Two athletes begin at the start line. One has a chip timer on their ankle. 3-2-1 go, run 100m to a worm. First com first serve. Then perform 30 reps of worm clean and jerk. Once complete, the athlete with the chip timer runs another 150m to the changeout station. Transfer the chip timer to partner 3, who will then enter the water. Pass the first buoy and turn left again, swimming 250m to the second buoy, take a final left, exit the water, and run to the finish line." Joey was partner 3, the swimmer.

The next event was called Sunset, and it consisted of 3 rounds of 20 lunges, 15 burpees, and 5 15' rope climbs. I was excited to see this one because we were told Joey is pretty good at the rope climbs. Sadly, we missed it because the schedule was wrong, and we had stepped out for lunch & to grab my Sun/Moon piece from the flea market. His team went earlier than the schedule showed, and we missed it by just a few minutes. (insert sad face here) We did get to see video of the event, and yep, Joey is good at the rope climbs.

The final event was called Prime, and it had a little bit of a several things: Snatches, Thrusters, Hand Stand Push Ups, Toes to Bar, Double Unders (jumping rope). The team could switch in and out however they wanted. The goal was to complete as many rounds as possible in 9 minutes

Joey came in on the Toes to Bar. 19 of these had to be done each round.

He also did the Hand Stand Push Ups. Again, 19 is a round. He completed two rounds and then 15 of a third round. Brad came in and finished the last four.

Seriously! I couldn't do even one of these.

And thus ended the day and the competition for Team Run Like The Winded. We were so impressed with the team, with all the participants from CrossFit Encompass, and with all the participants period. Joey loves CrossFit, and he says anyone can do it because any move can be adapted to where a person is at that time.

Anybody can do CrossFit! And if you don't believe that, this guy would like a word...

He was on Team Fit Fat Fun, and I met them after the above event. Love the kilts!

So that was our adventure to Daytona Beach. Watching all that inspired Jamie and me to form our own team. We call ourselves Team Round & Squishy, and we'll be participating in next year's donut eating competition. Just kidding!